


CTU

by Jadesfire2808 (Jadesfire)



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 20:32:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadesfire/pseuds/Jadesfire2808
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything is just how she left it</p>
            </blockquote>





	CTU

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to [](http://donutsweeper.livejournal.com/profile)[**donutsweeper**](http://donutsweeper.livejournal.com/)

_All good things…_

It's sort of a relief for Jordan to find her desk back at the CTU is just how she left it. She cleared everything important before the BAU assignment, and it doesn't look like anyone went rifling through her back-files for anything. She's still got a last few reports that need finishing, on things that closed weeks before she joined the BAU, although someone's given her some new ones to welcome her back. Wonderful.

On top of the precarious pile of files is a small, white box that she approaches with caution. The BAU team might be considered insane by some, but she knows they've got nothing on the CTU folks when it comes to sheer nuttiness. Most of them think of it as a relief valve; personally, she wants a word with the recruiters about their screening policy.

There's a business card on top of the box, and she picks it up with a wry smile.

_Jordan Todd. Counter Terrorism Unit_

Underneath someone has scribbled _Welcome back. Grab a file_, which is the standard post-vacation greeting around here. A little reassured, she lifts the lid of the box.

The smell is warm, as though the cookies were packaged straight out of the oven, oatmeal and sugar in counterpoint, with undertones of cinnamon and nutmeg that make her mouth water. Carefully, she picks one out from the pile, turning the card over in her other hand as she takes a cautious bite.

_Jordan Todd. Counter Terrorism Unit_

This is what she signed up for, she remembers. Of course, the BAU is the pick of the assignments, elite, prestigious and with the atmosphere of a pressure cooker. When she first joined the CTU, she got her head around the idea that people wanted to kill her because of her nationality, because of history, because of politics. She wasn't as ready as she'd thought for what people would do just because they were human. She's not sure she ever needed to know.

Catching the crumbs, she finishes the cookie and brushes off her hands over the box. Because she's back where she wanted to be all along, she got cookies not flowers (allergies), and oatmeal not chocolate chip (migraines). She's back where she's _known_, and as she sits back down at her desk, she can feel herself slotting back into her regular life. Sure, the hours are terrible, the pay is lousy and the benefits minimal, but this is a job she knows she can do, this is where she's needed.

Maybe the BAU teams have to be the way they are, to survive the things they see. God knows she saw enough in the casefiles to fuel her nightmares for years to come. She's got no doubt that it's a job worth doing, and that they do it well. But seeing the cost?

Jordan reaches up and takes another cookie, then pulls the first of her new files towards her.


End file.
